OH ABBY, ABBY, ABBY(no spoilers)

9 May, 2018

What an emotional roller coaster ride tonight's line-up of TV
shows.

It started with the much ballyhooed last episode of Paulie
Perette as Abby Sciutto, the coolest forensic scientist since Penelope
Garcia and Chloe O'Brian. (I have to confess that when we first
brought Polly home as a foster and I was trying to decide what to call her,
NCIS was on and I decided to name her Paulie but of course everybody thought
it was spelled "Polly" and that name stuck.)

Loyal NCIS viewers have gotten used to sad (and sometimes
happy) goodbyes from the "family" we have come to love over the past 15
seasons. According to Wikipedia, there have been 15 main characters
and 71 minor characters. A lot of them have gone to that happy TV
vault in the sky. First it was Kate, in season 2 or 3, who was shot in the
head as she was laughing with Gibbs. She was the girl on the team, even
before Tim McGee came to NCIS. (Sasha Alexander didn't do too badly
after leaving the show. She went on to become Laura Isles on
Rizzoli and Isles.

Kate was replaced by Mossad agent Ziva David (Cote de Pablo),
who played the role for 12 years until she retired and returned to Israel
following her father's death. There was a touching farewell between
her and her partner, Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) at the start of season
13. There was always sexual tension between the two but never more
than tension--except maybe that one day in Paris.....? We thought we'd
heard the last of her until Weatherly announced he was leaving the show (he
now stars as Bull) and they had to write him out. When Tony heard of
Ziva's death in an attack on her house in Israel, he discovers that he and
Ziva have a young toddler daughter, so he leaves NCIS to become a Dad.

Director of NCIS from season 3 to 5 was Jenny Shepherd
(Lauren Holly), who was killed in an ambush by some Russians, but she was
dying anyway, of some terrible disease. She took out about 5 shooters
before she finally succumbed, however.

Jenny was replaced by Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll), who still
heads NCIS but his wife was killed (along with Ziva's Dad) a few seasons
ago.

Gibbs' best friend, Mike Franks (Muse Watson) who always
showed up for special cases, was also gunned down in the rain one evening.
(He continued to show up as a ghost many times.)

We've also weathered Gibbs' being blown up and getting
amnesia, Ducky's heart attack, and McGee's wife's accident, which leaves her
wheelchair bound. But this was Abby!!! Perette wanted out
after 15 seasons (and apparently she was also on Jag with Gibbs and
Ducky of which NCIS is a spinoff).

All the promos have prompted lots of social media chat about
how Abby was going to leave, following her shooting by a disgruntled former
client. Would they let Abby die? How could they kill off Abby??

Perette had said everyone would be satisfied with the ending
and I have to admit that she was right, but this was a many-Kleenex episode.

But the tears didn't stop there. Next was Bull
which was also a tear jerker in several spots and I predicted the
ending in the early scenes. It was the classic cliff hanger to end the
season.

Then came Rise, the new coming-of-age show about a
group of teens trying to put on a production Spring Awakening, to
great anger by conservative parents, the PTA, and the principal of the
school. Each of the kids has his or her own emotional story and it was
good for lots of tears tonight.

And if that wasn't enough, the evening ended with Call the
Midwife. That show is a guaranteed tear jerker, even if it's only
from emotion over the birth of a baby but tonight there was the emotional
funeral of one of the midwives, many segments throughout the hour that had
me reaching for the Kleenex and then ending with an emotional birthday for
Sister Monica Joan (in the early stages of dementia), which wasn't sad, but
a huge emotional wallop that made the tears flow.

I was so drained that I didn't watch the evening news.
I'd been so upset at reading one article after another through the afternoon
of the terrible things the administration has done in the last two days, I
didn't even want to know what the final tally was. I'll find out on
Morning Joe in the morning.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Goodbye, Abby.
Thank goodness for USA reruns.

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